The way to absorption and enlightenment

Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) with Sayalay, Wisdom Quarterly

Say what? Slow down. Sit down? Be humble?

What is it going to take for meditation (natural levels of absorption) to succeed?

Yes, "there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, there's still time to change the road you're on," if Robert Plant (the lead in Led Zeppelin) is to be believed.

The stairway to heaven is twofold, calm and insight. Mindfulness (dispassionate, non-investigative, attention and radically-acceptance of the present) helps with both. 

I'm ready to start. - You could've started sooner.

But it is better to begin what the Buddha called the "gradual training." That establishes samadhi or coherence (blissful all together mind), on a foundation of virtue (sila).

When these states are cultivated, they become a strong foundation for a more important practice. That is the effort toward enlightenment and liberation, bodhi and nirvana.

That gets underway -- vipassana through systematic satipatthana, i.e., insight via establishing the Four Foundations of Mindfulness). The real secret will be the practice of Dependent Origination (paticca-samupada). But all of that can wait. The mind/heart must first be prepped and purified.

It's nearly effortless now. Allow it.

Stop. Sit still. Or freeze in any of the other three postures (standing, walking, or lying down) and give attention to something that always stays in the moment, in the ever-changing present, such as the ever-present breath. Relax with each exhalation. LET GO of everything. We've been waiting to exhale. This is it.

• The Buddha's admonition to give will make sense now as in giving there is a letting go, and it is that letting go, that non-clinging or internal-renunciation that makes all the difference. How could we let go of the bigger things (views, ego, pride, willfulness, opinions, etc.) if we are still clinging to the small and insignificant ones?

The mind will go into the object of attention, which may be a sign (nimitta) brought about by focusing on the breath to the exclusion of everything else.

The sacred instructions

Who are the noble ones, and how do we know?

Communicating with an enlightened (someone attained to at least the first stage of path fruition) nun, we secured these step-by-step instructions for reaching the first meditation.

We'll reserve those for Part II. This article is about the harder thing, getting started. If there's one word to associate with meditation, it's sticktoitiveness. Persistence pays off. Starting and stopping and not building up momentum is exhausting, leads to expectations, and gets going about as well as a fire from rubbing two sticks together. (Try it and vividly experience how much it's about starting and not breaking off until there's smoke and an ember to nurture, like the pleasant zest and enthusiasm one feels for the nimitta once it appears).

How does it feel? - Meditation or this silly cap?

Now let's get kooky and creative: the cap. What will put us on the path and hold us there until lift off? Lift off is deceptive because of beginner's luck or stories one inevitably hears about "naturals" effortlessly sitting, attaining, and progressing very quickly. People like that, just start. This is for people not like that.

The cap, the cap

that covers the skull

Can crack, be krak,

and never be dull

Helmet to contain

twinkling neurons

and dancing brain

Footballer's drum

Dome of gold

crystal arrayed

Scuffed and old

Binaural at play

Crown, tiara, dunce

magnets, Faraday cage

Employ it young

Come back with age

Where are thought,

Experience, feeling?

Surely the heart,

Not the ceiling...

That may not work. Well, it's OK. Be creative.

A copper wire or band with clear quartz crystal (or amethyst, rose, etc.) will serve for a start. Arrange it over the forehead so the stone rests over the third eye (pineal gland). Then just let it be.

To fall asleep, we have to pretend to already be asleep. Therefore, it follows that to absorb, be as if already absorbed.

Does it have to be a cap, helmet, or headband? Could it be a laurel wreath, woven out of plant-helpers like the vine of the dead, an MAO inhibitor, and the bark of a tree or a mushroom cap feted by datura flower petals, stems, and a creeper?

That might work as the volatile oils, scents, and vibrations begin to do their work by proximity and sympathy. Frequency, vibration, it all seems to be about resonance.

• Helmet in lead photo said to stimulate hair growth (irestorelaser.com)